Darkgolem
06-20-2008, 02:03
Guardians are one of the most powerful and enjoyable classes to play on Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO). Masters in surviving the attentions of multiple opponents, able to dish out a fair amount of damage, and able to gain the aggression of your fellowship’s enemies, a guardian is the apotheosis of tanking.
However, there are both good and bad ways to play a guardian. There are certain ways to reach a point where you are able to tank well, and there are certain approaches which allow you to reach your full tanking potential. Learning the best methods and important techniques for successful tanking is critical.
Equipment is Key
One of the most important parts of being a successful guardian is your equipment. Guardians live or die by their equipment, and you should go out of your way to save up silver for level 15, the level where you gain access to heavy armor. It makes a huge difference, and a guardian who neglects getting the best armor possible will regret it, often. A good weapon is very important too, just like for everyone, but less so than having the best equipment possible.
Aside from having a lot of armor protection, items are critical in combat for the ability benefits they give. You need to have good statistics, and have the more important statistics to be high. Shop for good statistics, don’t simply assume that the highest armor score is most important.
Statistics Prevent You from Being A Statistic
There are certain key abilities which are critical for guardians, and what is more, different abilities are key for a guardian depending upon what style of combat they prefer. In all cases, as a guardian gets to higher and higher levels, fate is one of the most important guardian abilities. This is because a guardian cannot draw aggression without the power to use special abilities, and at higher levels, combats last longer. You need to regenerate as much power in combat is possible. You can get by at lower levels without a massive fate, but once you hit higher and mid levels, start aiming for a nice high fate.
Agility and might are also important, though how important will vary from race to race and player to player. As a guardian, when tanking, you basically have the choice of concentrating on parrying or blocking. If you block more, than you will want to have a higher might, because might is important for blocking. On the other hand, agility is important for parrying, and so you want to have a high agility. On top of all this, might is important for reducing the amount of damage you take from ordinary physical attacks, and important for the amount of damage you do in combat. Agility is important for hitting and for getting a critical hit.
The way I approach statistics is by a measure of effectiveness. If I find that I am missing occasionally in combat, I place more statistics in agility. I put everything I can into fate, and increase might as much as I can without sacrificing the other two statistics. This is the best way to approach combat as a might/blocking based guardian. If I am using an agility based guardian, then I put as much as possible into fate, have the highest agility as possible, and raise my might bit by bit until I am doing enough damage to draw aggression.
Why emphasize might or agility in particular? Because guardians have abilities which are activated by a successful block, which are activated by a successful parry, and if you emphasize neither, you will gain these special abilities less than if you emphasize one or the other.
Make sure not to neglect virtues, such as idealism (fate bonus), determination (might bonus) or similar. These can make a big deal, and it is wise to take a hard look at your virtues around level 15 or so, and get a “game plan” on what you want the stats to be.
Guardian Blocks and Guardian Parries
Guardians have multiple abilities which are based upon their ability to block and parry. Retaliation is a power which is activated when you successfully parry, and it unlocks thrust (a damage over time against a single opponent) and whirling retaliation (a pbaoe attack). For blocking, a successful block you can use shield swipe and shield taunt, or catch a breath. I personally prefer using blocking for my guardian, allowing me to heal (catch a breath) and shield taunt (since this is a 1 second stun). However, to attack multiple opponents and keep agg, the damage over time of a thrust and the aoe of a whirling retaliation works well. Race by race you will vary in what you are good at, with elves better at parrying and dwarves better at blocking, since they have a different stats.
You always want to remember to use your base ability, guardians ward, to bring up your blocking and parrying abilities, and use your guardian’s parry and guardian’s ward, depending upon your preference. These increase your blocking and/or parrying ability by 10%, a huge bonus.
A third option rather than focusing on blocking or parrying is the overpower ability. This ups the guardian’s attack ability and lowers their defense. This is a pretty handy ability, but is a solo ability. This is a lot more useful for agility high guardians, since you lose a lot of blocking ability, but not so much to parrying.
Juggling Opponents
Juggling opponents refers to the art of keeping multiple opponents agged upon yourself rather than your allies. There are certain key principles to this which all guardians should know.
You should be the one to start a combat. Charge your opponents (or use a thrown weapon to draw their attention) and pull their aggression upon you before your allies attack. The best way to teach your allies to do this is a simple rule. Count to 5 before attacking, after you attack. This will guarantee you will start to draw aggression before your allies. Starting with aggression in a combat can make your allies start off on the right foot, and go a long way to survivability for you and your friends.
Tab is your friend. Targeting opponents quickly should be done quickly with the tab key. There is one big danger with this. If there are distant enemies who are or are not involved in the combat, you can end up targeting them and then being unable to attack. However, if your able to keep track quickly on who your targeted on, you can switch opponents quickly. Your goal is to target one opponent, get their aggression, switch to another, get their aggression with an attack, and so on. As a parrying guardian, this is done with area of affects (the whirling retaliation) and thrust (damage over time attacks draw tons of aggression). With a blocking guardian, this is down with shield taunt and shield swipe. Since shield taunt is a stun, it is very effective in shutting down opponents.
Known who to concentrate on. Sometimes you just have to accept the fact that you cannot draw everyones agg. In that case, draw agg from opponents first from your minstrel or healer, second from hunters, and prioritize elites first. Certain classes can stand up longer (such as champions), others have pets to draw agg (such as lore masters) and have mezz effects to deal with enemies. But hunters and minstrels both have a lot of abilities with induction bars, and if your minstrel is being harassed, it can spell doom for your whole part, as all of them will be healed more slowly.
The Final Word
There is definitely a strategy to playing a guardian, it isn't simply marching out to opponents and doing damage quickly as you can. Considering how much aggression they draw, they definitely need support, but if played properly a guardian can spell the difference between survival and death for your fellowship. Make sure that you know how to play yours properly, and you will be much desired in any fellowship at any level
However, there are both good and bad ways to play a guardian. There are certain ways to reach a point where you are able to tank well, and there are certain approaches which allow you to reach your full tanking potential. Learning the best methods and important techniques for successful tanking is critical.
Equipment is Key
One of the most important parts of being a successful guardian is your equipment. Guardians live or die by their equipment, and you should go out of your way to save up silver for level 15, the level where you gain access to heavy armor. It makes a huge difference, and a guardian who neglects getting the best armor possible will regret it, often. A good weapon is very important too, just like for everyone, but less so than having the best equipment possible.
Aside from having a lot of armor protection, items are critical in combat for the ability benefits they give. You need to have good statistics, and have the more important statistics to be high. Shop for good statistics, don’t simply assume that the highest armor score is most important.
Statistics Prevent You from Being A Statistic
There are certain key abilities which are critical for guardians, and what is more, different abilities are key for a guardian depending upon what style of combat they prefer. In all cases, as a guardian gets to higher and higher levels, fate is one of the most important guardian abilities. This is because a guardian cannot draw aggression without the power to use special abilities, and at higher levels, combats last longer. You need to regenerate as much power in combat is possible. You can get by at lower levels without a massive fate, but once you hit higher and mid levels, start aiming for a nice high fate.
Agility and might are also important, though how important will vary from race to race and player to player. As a guardian, when tanking, you basically have the choice of concentrating on parrying or blocking. If you block more, than you will want to have a higher might, because might is important for blocking. On the other hand, agility is important for parrying, and so you want to have a high agility. On top of all this, might is important for reducing the amount of damage you take from ordinary physical attacks, and important for the amount of damage you do in combat. Agility is important for hitting and for getting a critical hit.
The way I approach statistics is by a measure of effectiveness. If I find that I am missing occasionally in combat, I place more statistics in agility. I put everything I can into fate, and increase might as much as I can without sacrificing the other two statistics. This is the best way to approach combat as a might/blocking based guardian. If I am using an agility based guardian, then I put as much as possible into fate, have the highest agility as possible, and raise my might bit by bit until I am doing enough damage to draw aggression.
Why emphasize might or agility in particular? Because guardians have abilities which are activated by a successful block, which are activated by a successful parry, and if you emphasize neither, you will gain these special abilities less than if you emphasize one or the other.
Make sure not to neglect virtues, such as idealism (fate bonus), determination (might bonus) or similar. These can make a big deal, and it is wise to take a hard look at your virtues around level 15 or so, and get a “game plan” on what you want the stats to be.
Guardian Blocks and Guardian Parries
Guardians have multiple abilities which are based upon their ability to block and parry. Retaliation is a power which is activated when you successfully parry, and it unlocks thrust (a damage over time against a single opponent) and whirling retaliation (a pbaoe attack). For blocking, a successful block you can use shield swipe and shield taunt, or catch a breath. I personally prefer using blocking for my guardian, allowing me to heal (catch a breath) and shield taunt (since this is a 1 second stun). However, to attack multiple opponents and keep agg, the damage over time of a thrust and the aoe of a whirling retaliation works well. Race by race you will vary in what you are good at, with elves better at parrying and dwarves better at blocking, since they have a different stats.
You always want to remember to use your base ability, guardians ward, to bring up your blocking and parrying abilities, and use your guardian’s parry and guardian’s ward, depending upon your preference. These increase your blocking and/or parrying ability by 10%, a huge bonus.
A third option rather than focusing on blocking or parrying is the overpower ability. This ups the guardian’s attack ability and lowers their defense. This is a pretty handy ability, but is a solo ability. This is a lot more useful for agility high guardians, since you lose a lot of blocking ability, but not so much to parrying.
Juggling Opponents
Juggling opponents refers to the art of keeping multiple opponents agged upon yourself rather than your allies. There are certain key principles to this which all guardians should know.
You should be the one to start a combat. Charge your opponents (or use a thrown weapon to draw their attention) and pull their aggression upon you before your allies attack. The best way to teach your allies to do this is a simple rule. Count to 5 before attacking, after you attack. This will guarantee you will start to draw aggression before your allies. Starting with aggression in a combat can make your allies start off on the right foot, and go a long way to survivability for you and your friends.
Tab is your friend. Targeting opponents quickly should be done quickly with the tab key. There is one big danger with this. If there are distant enemies who are or are not involved in the combat, you can end up targeting them and then being unable to attack. However, if your able to keep track quickly on who your targeted on, you can switch opponents quickly. Your goal is to target one opponent, get their aggression, switch to another, get their aggression with an attack, and so on. As a parrying guardian, this is done with area of affects (the whirling retaliation) and thrust (damage over time attacks draw tons of aggression). With a blocking guardian, this is down with shield taunt and shield swipe. Since shield taunt is a stun, it is very effective in shutting down opponents.
Known who to concentrate on. Sometimes you just have to accept the fact that you cannot draw everyones agg. In that case, draw agg from opponents first from your minstrel or healer, second from hunters, and prioritize elites first. Certain classes can stand up longer (such as champions), others have pets to draw agg (such as lore masters) and have mezz effects to deal with enemies. But hunters and minstrels both have a lot of abilities with induction bars, and if your minstrel is being harassed, it can spell doom for your whole part, as all of them will be healed more slowly.
The Final Word
There is definitely a strategy to playing a guardian, it isn't simply marching out to opponents and doing damage quickly as you can. Considering how much aggression they draw, they definitely need support, but if played properly a guardian can spell the difference between survival and death for your fellowship. Make sure that you know how to play yours properly, and you will be much desired in any fellowship at any level